The increasing demand of fossil fuels, in view of limited supplies, has provided motivation to develop alternative resources and technologies for obtaining fuels and chemicals. Renewable resources that produce biomass materials are being investigated for use in conversion processes that can produce substances traditionally obtained from fossil fuels. For example, transesterification of vegetable oil based fatty acids to bio-diesel provides an example of a renewable resource that can be processed into a fuel. The current transesterification processes result in glycerol being formed as a side product (about 10% by wt.) during bio-diesel manufacture. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an effective process for converting glycerol into a useful chemical. In addition, glycerol can also be produced in large quantities from various forms of biomass derived cellulosic materials